


Again, but Different

by parsnips (trifles)



Category: Discworld - Terry Pratchett, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Ankh-Morpork, Ankh-Morpork City Watch, Assassins' Guild, BAMF Hermione Granger, Department of Mysteries, Gen, Snape Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-04
Updated: 2013-07-04
Packaged: 2017-12-17 16:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/869719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trifles/pseuds/parsnips
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He felt a hand, small and steady, pressing against the back of his filthy robe.</p><p>"Live better," she said, and pushed him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Again, but Different

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on livejournal, 9.11.06.

Severus woke to the sound of his chains being split.  
  
Azkaban's Dementors had long since fled the island, but the prison was still miserable, and dark. He opened his eyes and saw a fading spark from where his manacles used to connect to the wall. Someone said, _Lumos._ Hermione Granger stood over him.  
  
"Professor."  
  
"Yes," he said, but weakly.  
  
She nodded, and Stunned him.  
  
\---  
  
Severus woke again, this time to the whisper of _Enervate._  
  
It was still dark, but he didn't know if it was the same day or not. The air smelled different, though -- cleaner, drier. He was indoors. There was a breath of cold air moving.  
  
 _Lumos._ The light came from behind him this time. When he stood (weakly, still too weakly), he cast a shadow over the veiled portal before him.  
  
Granger said, "You killed Dumbledore. You've killed a great many people. But you betrayed Voldemort to Harry, and Harry told me so."  
  
The veil moved. Severus could see to the other side of the portal, could see there was no generator to make the wind, no second wand-wielder to create the feel of Otherness drifting toward him. There was just this thing, and whatever lay beyond it.  
  
Severus had collected, and cherished, all the reports on Sirius Black's death.  
  
"They've overruled my testimony. Harry's dead, and neither he nor Dumbledore have returned as ghosts. There's no one else to speak for you. I don't think you're evil, though you may deserve to die. Either way, I don't believe the Ministry deserves the publicity for performing the sort of stunt they've got planned for you tomorrow."  
  
He hurt. He'd rather die than say so, rather die than live like this.  
  
He didn't turn around to face her.  
  
"I've studied the Veil, Professor. And I've been in the Ministry records. I think I know what it does. I've set it for somewhere you'll survive, I think, though there's no way for me to change the portal's rules. You'll be young again, barely adolescent; you'll retain your memory for the most part, though I don't know for how long. You may consider one or both a curse or a tool -- I leave that entirely up to you."  
  
He felt a hand, small and steady, pressing against the back of his filthy robe.  
  
"Live better," she said, and pushed him.  
  
\---  
  
The third time he opened his eyes, he was lying in a cobbled street. Rain was pouring from the sky. He was naked. And the world felt so much better, stronger, sweeter, and _alive._  
  
A lantern swung before him.  
  
"'Ere now. Shouldn't you be in bed?"  
  
Severus pulled himself upright. He was... small. So small. He looked up at the man who'd woken him, took in the chainmail, leather, hourglass and cosh on the beltloop, and tried to remember every set of manners he'd ever learned and dropped to the wayside.  
  
The man looked meditatively at Severus. Severus's eye caught the dull copper light of a small badge hanging beside the man's cosh. The badge seemed to say, _I am the law, and I work quietly. The bloody great stick beside me is another matter._  
  
"I was trying to go home," Severus said. His voice was too young to even crack, though he tried to make it do so. He did manage to shiver without artifice. He could make this work. "I think I slipped and hit my head. I can't remember where I live."  
  
The man -- guard? -- sighed and unhooked the hourglass from his belt and peered at it, at Severus, and then at the streets around him. "Time o' night... banging on doors..." he muttered under his breath, and added more strongly, "Stay here," before marching to the door immediately to Severus's left. It opened almost instantly, and a black-clad warder who looked barely sixteen leaned against the doorjamb.  
  
There was a conversation Severus couldn't hear. They both looked over at him a number of times. The warder tugged gently at his cuffs; the guard's hand lightly brushed his cosh. They both smiled with every evidence of friendliness before the guard came back toward Severus (never turning his back to the warder, Severus couldn't help but notice), and said, "I've found you a room. They owe me a favor. Orphan's cell, but better than the street. They'll find you some, ah, clothes as well. See that you don't make a problem. If you don't fit in, try the next door down, it's all guilds on this street." The guard shifted on his feet. "Come by the Watch tomorrow if you really did want to find where you live. And don't go walking around at three in the morning by yourself anymore unless you want to lose more than just the clothes off your back." The guard sighed again. "Right. Go on, then."  
  
Severus went on.  
  
At the door, the warder looked down at him, threw a dry linen at his head, and said, "So what do they call you?"  
  
He could do this. No one knew him. A fresh start. No tattoos marred him, no scars, no history, no rage, no Potters, no fear, nothing. He could breathe, he could fight. He could win.  
  
Histories could be forged; memories could be magicked. He said the first lie that came to mind as he toweled himself off. "Vetinari."  
  
And he set himself to conquer.

 

END


End file.
